Scholarship • Serving • Ministry – Ian Paul
David Tudor was ordained in the Church of England, and served in Southwark Diocese in the 1980s, and then in Chelmsford Diocese from 2000, as Rector of Canvey Island. As a BBC report from a year ago notes: In 1988, David Tudor was a defendant in two criminal trials In the first trial, he was …
Paul Chamberlain writes: I’m a priest in the Church of England, the vicar of a parish in Portsmouth Diocese, the Area Dean of Gosport, and a member of General Synod. Same-sex attraction is part of my story, although my wife and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary later this year, and we have two …
Attending General Synod is always an intense experience, and I always need a couple of days to recover, despite trying to be wise in the use of my time and energy whilst there. And it is dangerous making early judgements about the significance of a particular meeting, since this often only comes to light with …
General Synod is currently meeting in York (you can watch the proceedings live on the Church of England YouTube channel), and the debates can vary from the sublime to the ridiculous. Everything is improved with a sprinkling of humour, and to that end I asked ChatGPT how Anthony Trollope might describe the opening of Synod. …
Regular readers will know that I have been concerned for many years at the gradual erosion of the clergy stipend, and both the corresponding decline in the clergy pension, together with the major changes made in 2008 and 2011, reducing the pension to 1/2 of the stipend from 2/3, and extending the qualifying period of …
Project Spire is the name that has been given to the Church Commissioner’s decision to put aside £100m of their investments to be directed to working with and for communities affected by historic transatlantic slavery, with the intention that it creates a lasting legacy. The £100 million, which will be built up over the 9-year …
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware that safeguarding has been a deeply contentious issue in the Church of England for several years, and has come to a head over the last few months and weeks. Justin Welby resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury because of his failure to take action …
Andrew Goddard writes: This article, building on my earlier account, explores issues surrounding this week’s public meeting of the House of Bishops to consider the Crown Nominations Commission’s (CNC) discernment process for diocesan bishops. Although that meeting was welcomingly transparent, the discernment processes leading to the proposals supported by it were much less so. Four areas …
Andrew Goddard writes: Reflecting on the recent July Session of the Church of England’s General Synod and considering where we now find ourselves on the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) questions of sexuality, marriage and identity I was struck by the fact that we seem to be engaged in a game of episcopal Jenga. …
I had a busy week on broadcast media last week. On Thursday I took part on a panel discussion hosted by the Religion News Service, which provides information on religious issues for the wider press (who might not fully understand all the issues). You can watch the one hour discussion on YouTube here. On Saturday, …
Christopher Landau writes: In some of the cases of marriage breakdown I have known, a crucial moment came when one party no longer believed the marriage could be saved, and so the only option was to proceed to divorce. I fear the Church of England stands on the precipice of such a moment. I hope …
